Oven Roasted Herb Chicken

Source: Mom, cir. about 1980!

Oven Roasted Herb Chicken

Deep Italian roots are attached to this dish. Every Italian household loves chicken. We love to stew it, fry it, or roast it. Such a delicious meal and I find roasted chicken to be pretty simple. The quality of chicken greatly matters. Take the time to buy from a local, organic grower or buy only from a reputable growing farm who provide a great life for our delicious hens. The second most important thing here is how you season it. Fresh herbs are best. My herbs of preference for chicken are always rosemary, oregano and a bit of sage. Of course the final touches matter most. With the delicate flavors from the fine olive oil, salt and pepper, plus the addition of the whole roasted garlic cloves...well, do I have your attention yet?
Serve of course with garlic mashed potatoes!
Enjoy.

Cuisine American, French, Italian

Prep Time 15minutes

Cook Time 45minutes

Total Time 1hour

Servings 5people

Ingredients

1 or 2wholechickenTake the whole chicken and plan to cut it down the middle, cooking open-faced

2 to 3tbsolive oil

2 to 3clovesgarlicI'd suggest 2 per chicken

2 to 4tspitalian herbsrosemary, oregano, sage

2 to 3pinchessalt and pepperper chicken, so about 6-7

Instructions

Get your chickens unwrapped, rinsed, and patted dry

Dice your fresh herbs, and separate your cloves.
Cut your chickens right down the middle of the breast, but don't cut in half. When the breast is cut, the breast opens up, and the chicken fans out. Be sure the legs are broken from the joint, and the entire chicken is open. In your roasting dish, drizzle generously with olive oil, and season with your herbs

Flip the chicken over, and repeat the process.

Put in a pre-heated oven (220 Celsius) breast side up, for about 25 minutes. I choose the convection setting for this first bake.
After 25 minutes, turn over and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
For the final 5 minutes, turn over, breast side up, and broil to crisp up the skin.

I like to serve 1/2 a chicken per person. The chickens here are pretty small, so in total weight with bones, our chickens weigh about 5-6 lbs. You'll find, it's not too much for the average person.
Serve on the plate, include your crispy whole garlic cloves a few sprigs of herbs and a bit of juice.